I PLAY FOR by Publicis Kaplan Thaler New York for Street Soccer USA

The Design & Branding titled I PLAY FOR was done by Publicis Kaplan Thaler New York advertising agency for product: Street Soccer (brand: Street Soccer USA) in United States. It was released in Jun 2010.

Describe the brief from the client
Design a Street Soccer USA patch that can be sold as a fundraiser.

Describe the challenges and key objectives
In order to create an emotional connection, we needed to go deeper and wider than just one patch. Based on the key insight that players were participating for emotional reasons, we ended up designing an entire league identity from scratch – from naming the teams to designing team crests to teams kits. One key consideration was not falling back on the typical sentimental approach for combating homelessness.

Describe how you arrived at the final design
We designed a comprehensive campaign to draw attention to the emotional reasons for playing. For the US Cup in Washington, DC, we created a television spot to drive awareness, along with oversized posters around the arena, printed pieces that were handed out and, most importantly, team kits that the players wore and that fans were able to purchase.

Give some indication of how successful the outcome was in the market
The I PLAY FOR brand was featured on the NBC Nightly News and CNN, as well as seen by thousands of spectators at Street Soccer events. More importantly, our entire run of jerseys featuring the team patches sold out, creating a healthy revenue stream for the cash-strapped charity. It has also served as Street Soccer’s calling card as it goes after bigger sponsors – Nike and Microsoft have already contributed, and Street Soccer is in talks with several other Fortune 500 companies.